Secretary of Energy Rick Perry spoke with Brian Kilmeade about President Trump’s remarks on energy and infrastructure in Hackberry, Louisiana. Secretary Perry said America is becoming the number one oil and natural gas producing country in the world while leading the world in reducing energy emissions. Perry believes America can bring this technology and innovation to European countries and keep them away from working with Russia to fulfil their energy needs.
Plus, Secretary Perry on staying in the Trump Administration as the President deals with Russia, China, North Korea & Venezuela.
Watch here:
BRIAN KILMEADE, FOX ANCHOR: Joining us now is the former governor of Texas, turned 14th Secretary of Energy, Secretary Rick Perry. Secretary welcome back.
RICK PERRY, U.S. SECRETARY OF ENERGY: Hey Brian, good, thank you, it’s been too long but we’ve been staying on the road pretty steady.
KILMEADE: I know, I noticed the President in Louisiana talking about energy and that’s one grateful state. He’s taken the chains off and he’s letting them drill and frack but that’s just not in Louisiana am I correct?
PERRY: Yes, absolutely, I would have loved to been with him but I was down in Columbia working on some energy projects down there and he had that in great control and fabulous facility down in Cameron, Louisiana the private sector company Sempra, just a huge amount of liquefied natural gas that’s going to be available heading over to Europe. This is going to be the fourth large scale LNG facility. You know, what’s happening Brian is this, you talk about a fabulous American story of innovation and technology. Fifteen years ago they told us we were through being able to produce energy in American, you know they weren’t saying here’s what you got to switch over to but it wasn’t going to be fossil fuel and it certainly wasn’t going to be oil and gas but conventional wisdom was wrong all to often because they don’t believe in the American private sector in innovation and technology. And because of hydraulic fracturing directional drilling, America’s now the number one oil and gas producing country in the world, we are just within a few months of becoming a net energy exporter. Think about the – I mean just think about what I just said. When you look at fifteen years ago, our dependence upon foreign oil, you know, Venezuela, the Middle East and today America, an American innovation and technology is leading the world in energy production. We’re laying liquefied natural gas, American LNG, produced by tens of thousands of Americans, Louisiana and Texas, North Dakota, Pennsylvania, those states are right at the epicenter of this great shell gas revolution if you will, we’re laying that gas into 35 countries now on five continents. I mean…
KILMEADE: Right, it’s just – what I understand the challenge is, and you’re the expert, and of course your governor of Texas, your speed dial is full of energy experts. So, I heard it’s hard to transport and that’s where the money comes in, that’s why it’s cheaper for the Russians to set up a pipeline and go directly to these countries. Have we matched that price yet?
PERRY: Well, we’re right close to it, let me put it that way. And as we deliver more gas, as we find more gas and as we extract the associated gas on these crude fields, you’ll see even a more economically viable product and so we’re right at the point. And here’s the message to the Europeans, would you rather pay a little bit more for U.S. gas that you know is going to be there…
KILMEADE: Yes.
PERRY: …that’s not going to be used as a political weapon against you or do you just want to rely upon the Russians? This single plan, this single plan in Louisiana, it has the capacity to produce 40 percent of all the gas that Russia is delivering to Europe today, just this one single facility. So, the message to the Europeans is very clear, look you can count on us, you’ve been counting on us for 40, or excuse me, 75 years from the stand point of delivering freedom to the European continents. You think about the sixth of June, the President’s going to be at Normandy talking about the great relationship, the great sacrifice that American’s made and we’re delivering freedom again in the form of LNG all across the continent. So, the powerful message about freedom, about economic prosperity all of it driven with American jobs and American innovation and technology.
KILMEADE: And listen you’re here to talk about energy I get it but this is such a success story it’s impossible to ignore and when people are trying to figure out what’s going on with the market, yes, you could – and the economy, you could say, yes look at the tax reform, I get it. But do you want to know what’s changed, it’s energy, I mean some of these stats are staggering, crude oil exports have double in 2018, an average of two million barrels a day, coal exports reached their five year high in 2018. That’s direction under your leadership and this presidency but I was shocked, Thursday night I was in your place, Texas, Houston, Texas, and it was for a great cause, the Johnny Mac fund, it’s really a gold star family fund, they’ve all ready raised $18 million and they said as part of this we’d like for you to interview General Petraeus, I said really? I would pay $18 million to interview General Petraeus but listen to what he brought me to when I asked about our security.
(BEGIN AUDIO CLIP)
KILMEADE: You talk about security, that’s the way to get security, we’re in control of our own energy now thanks to the people of Texas, primarily.
GENERAL PETRAEUS: Very important to realize that OPEC is no longer the swing producer in the world and I have to say it’s interesting because we watched the beginning of this when I was actually director of the CIA because we were tracking what the price of oil would be after the next round of sanction on Iran, this was the previous rounds. And we had very good energy economists at the CIA. As this was going on, we kept saying what’s going on in the U.S. market, I mean it just jumped another 400,000 barrels per day, what is happening. And you know we were – it was increasing by a million barrels per year, remember back when all the respected energy economists said that we had reached peak oil productions and it was six million barrels per day. We are now over 12 million barrels per day and that was only about a decade or so ago. Some punsters have said that the Gulf States no longer have us over a barrel.
(END AUDIO CLIP)
KILMEADE: He’s right, I mean that’s how enthusiastic a military general is about what energy has done.
PERRY: Yes, General Petraeus and I were together yesterday in Columbia and talking to them about that exact story, American technology, American company going into Columbia to help stabilize that region, obviously with what’s going on with Venezuela, we’ve got a real challenge down in that part of the world. But shifting back over to the European theater if you will, America’s dominance now and there’s no other word for it Brian than to say dominance. We’re not saying it in a bad way, we’re just – it’s just a factual thing, American is the dominant energy producer in the world today and when you think about what that’s doing and here’s the interesting thing we’re creating this massive amount of wealth and jobs and better quality of life for people and we’re driving down the emissions in this country. America’s leading the world in the reduction of emissions because we’re changing over from old or inefficient plants to these cleaner burning national gas plants. We can do the same thing for the European countries, I mean if they will allow American LNG to come in there. Number one, they know we’ll be a steady supplied, we won’t cut their gas off in the middle of the winter to try to get some political points done the way the Russians have done to Ukraine.
KILMEADE: So, listen you don’t have to sell me…
PERRY: But drive those emissions down.
KILMEADE: But Mr. Secretary you’ve got to sell Merkel, she cut this deal, her predecessor cut this deal with this pipeline from Russia and the President was right to call her out on it but that’s going to be the hub. She wants the elbow in her country, so I’m sold on it, you have to go over there and tell European leaders, don’t expect us to bail you out with tanks and bombs or bombers if you’re going to sit there and go on the natural gas pipe.
PERRY: And that’s exactly – as a matter of fact Marco Suscovich was with the President, he’s the – one of the deputy ministers over in the EU. He was with the President at that Cameron facility and I think that was a reflection of here’s some real leadership in the European Union that’s standing there with the President, traveled with him on Air Force One, that’s basically saying to him, Mr. President I get it and I’m going to take the message back to the European Union that we want American gas into Europe that Nord Stream 2 can’t, you know what I mean, it can be there, I’m not going to say absolutely and under no circumstances but we will just like Ronald Reagan defeated the old Soviet Union with our technology and our innovation. American energy innovation and technology will defeat the Russians in the gas business.
KILMEADE: I hear you, Mr. Secretary you have to run, I can not believe I’m trying to impress you with an interview I did with General Petraeus and you up me and said you saw him yesterday, how dare you, on my own show.
PERRY: I – sorry sir, just you know, if nothing else I’m factual.
KILMEADE: You’re a lot, you – Mr. Secretary are you going to be cause staying through the President’s first term?
PERRY: Oh, I’m going to be there helping him for as long as I can see into the future. We’ve got a lot of work to do, got some real challenges, you got Venezuela, you’ve got North Korea, you’ve got Iran, obviously Russia, plenty of work on our plate and I’m proud of be apart of this team. The President’s doing a fabulous of setting the markers out there, first time certainly in my life time I think that we’ve had a President of the United States that’s just willing to put the lance in the ground and say this is as far we we’re going. What he’s doing with China, this is difficult stuff but it’s the right thing to do long term and frankly short term for Americans. The President of the United States is delivering on what his promise was, he said he’s going to shake up Washington D.C. and God knows he’s doing that but he’s also shaken up the whole economic sphere of which we operate in and I think that’s nothing but good. It may not be the most comfortable thing in the world as we’re working out way through it but at the end of the day America’s going to be stronger, American industry’s going to be stronger and I can promise you American energy will be driving and leading this effort.
KILMEADE: All right Governor keep it – Mr. Secretary keep it going.
PERRY: All right, thanks Brian, God bless you brother.
KILMEADE: You got it, Secretary Perry telling us the latest on what is really fueling the economy, pun intended.
